Letter: Dept. of Religious Studies on Silent Sam

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The following statement concerning the Confederate memorial on McCorkle Place was approved by the faculty of UNC Chapel Hill’s Department of Religious Studies on Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2017:

It is impossible to study religion without recognizing the importance of cultural, social and political diversity, the enormous power of material objects and the profound ways in which the past pervades the present.

The Confederate monument known as “Silent Sam” exerts the ongoing power of white supremacy on our campus.

As religious studies scholars, we are particularly aware that it was erected as an icon of social inequity and that white nationalist groups today have invested its presence on campus with sacred value.

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In his 1913 speech dedicating the statue, Julian Carr celebrated the “sacrifice” of Confederate soldiers, the purity of “the Anglo-Saxon” as a “Christian race,” and God’s providential blessing of the Southern states in order to sanctify racial violence, a violence that continues today against racial, ethnic and religious minorities.

“Silent Sam” still enjoys the privilege of sacred space on this campus, not only raised high but also guarded by cameras, police and sometimes barricades.

Allowing this statue to remain in McCorkle Place contradicts the university’s policy on non-discrimination, which states that “the University is committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment.”

In her Aug. 30, 2017 email, Chancellor Carol Folt called on the campus community to “promote robust dialogue and debate” in an effort to encourage and protect free speech.

In order to demonstrate its sincere commitment to the freedom of expression, the University must end its policies curtailing student activism around the statue and throughout the campus.

Their material, embodied and creative counter narratives provide a vital service in challenging the legacy and ongoing threat of white supremacy.

The Department of Religious Studies calls for the removal of “Silent Sam” from McCorkle Place and the full protection of the student activists’ freedom of political expression.